IT'S ALMOST DECEMBER AND WE HAVE FLOWERS!

Well, yes, we have flowers, but then again, this is in North Carolina... We've had several really beautiful days and it's been warm enough to go without a sweater. Heaven. Here is one of the many, many roses still in full bloom:

Wonderful peeling bark. And note the holly bush behind: they are so much larger down here!

 

Love love love these "Belted Galloways"! And, up close, they are so soft and furry!

Here's  shop we stopped in today in Pittsboro:

Guess what? They carry my rug designs from Homefires!!!  Always nice to see...

CHOCOLATE CANDY!

Thanksgiving is over, and I haven't posted in several days, but have had this one waiting... After the turkey and the sweet potatoes and the pies, do you have room for some chocolate? Most of us do, I think! Here are some of my favorites: Thanksgiving chocolates from Lake Champlain Chocolates. At the store they practically JUMP off the shelf into your basket! (this is VERY GOOD branding and marketing, no?), and on the table, they don't last long in the packaging.

To be really really good, chocolates have to not only TASTE good, but the packaging really has to be of the highest quality. And, of course, to a designer, it's all "in the details" . Here are just a few gourmet treats:

From Mariebelle Sweets:

 

Their signature Italian boxes, the blue with brown ribbon. Then the hot chocolate in the tins of same blue and brown.

 

Or "Rouge Discovery" from RichArt Chocolates:

 

And then there's "Miami Sushi" from Romanico's Chocolates:

And, for a really wonderful website, and delicious chocolates, go to La Maison du Chocolat:

ANTHROPOLOGIE AND MORE

Anthropologie is one of my most favorite stores... and the one on Market Street in San Francisco is maybe my #1 choice. I have always found lots and lots of goodies there (runner up is the one in D.C. at the Georgetown Mall). Here is the one in San Francisco, as seen in October.

Stairs to the lower level:

How about this for a great table lamp?

A display of cotton:

Fun industrial lighting:

And now, on to some really luscious jewelry.. I love necklaces... but for me they have to be short: almost chokers. And, I like them large! These really hit the spot. Like?

AND DID YOU KNOW: Anthropologie has opened in the U.K.? Yes, the first store outside the U.S.is on Regent Street. A second overseas branch is due to open on the King's Road in Chelsea this spring 2010.

INTERVIEW WITH LIBBY!

Hey, this was fun! A local college student interviewed me by phone last week: It's strange to see my career so abbreviated, and obviously there is A LOT missing... but you will get the idea:

“An Eye For Detail”

By Megan Flood on November 20, 2009

“I didn’t know what I wanted to do at 21,” Libby Wilkie said, “You do a lot of thinking in those days.”

Wilkie graduated with a sociology degree from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after, she got a job at a consumer products company. She even started to get her masters in marketing.

It seemed like she had it all, but there was only one problem.

“I hated it,” Wilkie said.

So, Wilkie did something that not many people have the courage to do. She started over.

First, there were classes at Parsons New School for Design in New York because she had always had an interest in art.

Then, there was an intense career aptitude test that spanned over several days in order to tell her what jobs would fit both her skills and personality best. She scored very high in applied design… as well as a librarian.

Her epiphany moment came when she was applying for a job at a rug company.

“I saw an artist in a studio and then it all came clear. I thought, ‘that is what I want to do- I want those tubes of paint and canvas,’” she said.

Fast forward through a couple of moves, a marriage, and the birth of her daughter. Through the years, Wilkie enjoyed creating art of her own, until one day a fellow artist asked Wilkie to help with her art sales.

Wilkie helped the artist, and soon began an art licensing company, which consists of submitting art to manufacturers, who then choose specific art to show to buyers.

If you’ve walked through a Target recently, you may have noticed the festive Thanksgiving dinnerware. The art on these plates was created by one of the five artists whom Wilkie represents.

“When you submit the art to manufacturers, it goes into a black hole,” Wilkie said.

But sometimes, the manufacturers strike a deal with the buyers.

The Thanksgiving art was submitted to the manufacturer around a year ago, and plans for the dinnerware collection weren’t finalized with Target, the buyer, until around this past June.

Seeing her artists’ work come to life is exciting, but Wilkie notes that just one deal doesn’t pay much. “You have to have a lot of programs going on in order to make good money,” she said.

Wilkie has an accountant, but she is completely in charge of all of her company’s finances. It may seem complicated, but Wilkie’s enjoyment of the field seems to overpower that.

“What I do is so much a part of my life that every time I walk into a store I flip over a plate to see who made it. My daughter thinks I’m nuts, but I call it market shopping,”she said.

Wilkie’s workplace is a studio that faces the Hudson River on the west. Around 8 AM each morning, she enters the building and turns on her Macintosh computer, which she spends a majority of her time on.

Although she does email many manufacturers about her artists’ work, she also is busy working on her blog- a wonderful blend of color, culture, and design that makes you forget you are staring into a computer screen.

What personally inspires the woman who works in a field based on inspiration?

“Travel feeds me.” San Francisco, New York, and Paris are the favorites of the licenser, who also happens to speak French.

Check out Libby Wilkie’s Blog

RECIPE FOR CRANBERRY SAUCE

No, this blog has NOT become a food blog... but I made this sauce last night and, once again, realized just how GOOD it is. So, I wanted to share with you. I found this when I first came upon Epicurious, back in 2000. I had never searched for recipes on line before ( imagine that!!), but opened an account, and have used it fairly regularly ever since.

 

Cranberry Sauce with Dried Cherries and Cloves

Dried cherries and fresh cranberries pair beautifully. Cloves are a festive touch.

Ingredients

• 21/2 cups cherry cider or black cherry cider or cranberry juice cocktail


• 1 8-ounce package dried tart cherries (about 2 cups)


• 1 cup sugar


• 1 12-ounce package cranberries


• 1/4 teaspoon (generous) ground cloves

print a shopping list for this recipe

Preparation

Bring cider to simmer in heavy, large saucepan. Remove from heat. Add
cherries and let stand 8 minutes. Mix in sugar, then cranberries and
cloves. Cook over medium-high heat until cranberries burst, stirring
occasionally, about 9 minutes. Refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours
(sauce will thicken as it cools). (Can be prepared 4 days ahead. Cover
and keep refrigerated.)

I have to tell you: this is the VERY BEST cranberry sauce around.... unless you prefer the jelly variety!

NEW! PANTONE iPHONE CASE

This just in: from Pantone: great, colorful iPhone cases.

These cases are for iPhone and IPod. Here are the colors available:

Again, go to Pantone to order one! Only problem is: which color????

*Update *

To see more about colorful cases, for the iPhone but also the iPad, check here.

SAME GARDEN: DIFFERENT MONTHS

I'm linking to My Romantic Home: Friday Show and Tell!

MY DAHLIA GARDEN

I have a special part of my garden set aside for dahlias.... not just any dahlias, but the tall kind with dark red flowers and dark green leaves. These dahlias have come down in my famiily: yes, these very same tubers are the descendents of dahlias grown both in Maine and Philadelphia! Each fall, after the first frost, they are very carefully prepared for their winter "sleep". This process can vary a bit: sometimes they are surrounded by peat moss, some years by garden dirt, some years almost bare.. and then put either in a dry attic, or temperate shed, or basement. And, sometimes, in the spring when I go to wake them up, the tubers have turned to mush...not quite sure why this happens some years, and not in others. Does anyone have hints on wintering dahlias? Any particular varieties that you like?

So, here's the time sequence:

May 23:

June 17:

July 14: (With lavender and then nasturtiums)

August 3: ( A few cosmos have snuck in there on the left!)

August 29:

And finally: here they are as cut flowers!

WANT TO SPEND A MONTH IN FRANCE?

How about house and 'critter' (1 dog and 12 chickens) sitting?  The location is the Bordeaux region of Southwest France..."The Kitchen at Camont" is the place...Kate Hill is the person.... and she is looking for someone to "sit" and/or exchange for the month of December! Interested?

Yes or no, take a look at this video, just completed. Now, don't you want to go????? Here's another link to The French Kitchen.

LET'S GO SHOPPING AT TARGET!

I don't usually post news of my "other" business: that of being a licensing rep for several artists!  However, it IS what I do most of the time, and the wonderful artists I represent work very, very hard to make it all happen... So, in honor of all of them, I will post, from time to time, news of what they (we) are doing! You will find a complete link to my licensing business up above: "Licensing".

This from MOSSY BROOK STUDIO: "Cornucopia" and "Harvest Time". This is the original artwork submitted to Creative Converting about a year ago. Then, late last winter, we learned that Target was interested in these designs. Yes, it took several months to finally be a "done deal", but by May we had the contract signed for two separate collections.

And here are two shots I took last week at my local Target:

If you are a manufacturer and interested in these designs for other product applications, please contact me...

COLOR FROM FRANCE

Great colors!!

French tea towels are such a favorite of mine: yes, the colors are fantastic (and they last through hundreds...thousands?.. of washes), but the fabric is what I crave. Pure cotton, and so soft. Even more desirable are linen tea towels, which are very very difficult to find these days. My daughter was in Ireland, and even there she had trouble finding any that weren't geared to the tourist market. Suggestions anyone?

In any case, feast your eyes on these:

 

 

 

Makes you want to order these right now, doesn't it?   Here's how :  Quel Objet is the place to go! Take a look at this great on-line store for all things French.

    A VISIT TO MAD:  MUSEUM OF ART AND DESIGN

This was my second visit to this really over-the-top museum and only makes me want to a) become a member and b) go more often!

The two exhibits in which I was interested are "Slash: Paper Under the Knife" and "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection". But first, I took the elevator up to the fifth floor to the "artist in residence" or "working studios" area. Well, it was my lucky day! I met Sarah Abramson, one of the also very lucky artists who is there working, one day a week, while also talking about and showing her "wearable art"collection. Sarah's work will be shown at Gallery Loupe in Montclair, N.J. beginning next week; you can reach her at sarah@sarahabramson.us

Here is Sarah, working:  She starts by doing abstract ink drawings:

 

Then she makes paper models:

And here are actual pieces,cut with a jewelers saw: 

Her end use is a brooch/pin, but they could easily be used as pendants.

Can you tell which is the paper model?

Back to the Exhibitions at the museum... 

Slash: Paper Under the Knife "explores the use of paper as an independent medium. Many of these artists used paper as preliminary means of expression, but now use it as the end medium".  I particularly liked some of the on-site specific installations of Fran Siegel , Mia Pearlman, and Beatrice Coron (who used cut tyvek material). The detail in these "cut paper" works is incredible: they convey a lightness both in form and density that is amazing. You can watch a short video describing this entire exhibit here. 

Next to see was the Madeleine Albright collection of "Read My Pins". Lots and lots of pins! Well, it seems she collected pins from an early age: a round pin from high school was, I think, the earliest. Her husband's fraternity pin was next. But then, the categories of pins was extraordinary! Here are a few: Wild Animals, Jazz, Sealife, Spiders, Butterflires, Hearts, Birds. One noteworthy pin was called  "The Katrina Pin". This pin was given to her (handed to her in the street) just after Hurrican Katrina when she went to New Orleans. The young man who gave it to her said his father had given it to his mother on their fiftieth wedding anniversary. His mother had loved pins and his father (now a widower) wanted Mrs. Albright to have it, as another pin collector. It was a very personal story for such a "worldly" person. 

INTERVIEW WITH MARIA PINTO

So, on to the Cooper Hewitt Museum to hear Maria Pinto talk about creativity, how she came to be where she is, and the "design process". I loved it! The interviewer was Mary Tomer, founder of the Mrs.-O.org website. 

"Timing is all" says Maria! She worked in her family's Italian restaurant in Chicago until, when she turned 30, she decided it was time to see what else was out there for her! So off she went to art school, which then led to an apprenticeship with Geoffrey Beene, where she learned execution, discipline, precision and the New York fashion scene. For more than twenty years (with a two year hiatus) she has been designing women's ready to wear.

But it is the creative process that was interesting to hear about. "Where does your inspiration come from?" Mary asked. Everywhere and all the time! There is so much out there, she said, it's a matter of sifting through it all....again, organizing with discipline and precision, those tools she learned early in her trade. But once you decide, you go with it all the way.

First comes the research, then the inspirtion, then the manipulation. So, is this true for all the arts? What about surface design? Isn't it true that first, yes, there is the inspiration or idea, then the "manipulation" or the execution and formatting of those ideas? It's fascinating how the creative process is so connected within all the art disciplines. Ok, so give us an example of a theme, asked Mary. "Tango" was the answer! It originated with a trip to Brazil, rested in that vast creative never-never-land that is part of Maria, and then surfaced when the time was right. This collection uses lots of embellishment, the continuous curve, and movement, just as in dancing the tango.

This same process is true for the newest collection for Fall 2010: Ducati Motorcycles! She's working on this right now and must have the entire collection ready by the end of January. Oh the leathers, she said! To die for! So, stay tuned and take a look next fall at what is sure to be another stunning collection from Maria Pinto.

It was a day to inspire anyone!